


Butterfly

by Jadzia_Lupin



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Bridezilla, Comedy, Drama, F/F, F/M, M/M, Marriage, Wedding, post-canon ds9
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-02 08:05:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18807106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadzia_Lupin/pseuds/Jadzia_Lupin
Summary: Two years after the Dominion War ends, Dr. Bashir received a transmission from Sarina, in which she tells him that she’s coming by DS9 with some big news.





	Butterfly

Every day since the end of the Dominion War became more and more routine; for the first time since Julian boarded the station all those years ago, everything was quiet and orderly. Sure there was the occasional fight or minor accident, but generally, Julian was stuck in the infirmary all day, doing routine physicals, studying viruses, and spinning around in his chair out of boredom, waiting for someone to come in with a sprained wrist or a minor plasma burn. But nothing. So much for frontier medicine. 

In fact, the most excitement on the station in the past two years was the series of dull, stubborn peace talks between Bajor and Cardassia. Just the irritation at the delegates’ unyielding debates nearly drove Colonel Kira insane; neither side could agree to anything, even amongst their own countrymen. 

Naturally, the biggest discussion was the consideration of reparations for the occupation. The war had left Cardassia in no condition to pay all of the demanded reparations immediately, and Bajor barely needed the Federation’s help anymore, but reparations still needed to be paid; it was only right. 

Eventually, they agreed on paying reparations gradually rather than all at once. 

That was the most stressful issue; many people- including Kira- almost forgot there were more issues to discuss.

Julian was one of the only Starfleet officers left on Deep Space Nine; the Federation had been pulling its troops out of the system as Bajor regained strength and, more importantly, sovereignty.

Even off duty he was lonely; Ezri and he had decided to just be friends and she started dating Kira, so naturally, they spent most of their free time together, leaving Julian with Quark, Vic, and occasional transmissions from Miles.

On one particularly slow day, Julian had just sent Starfleet Medical his latest findings on the rasoka virus that had already infected hundreds of people in Cardassia Prime’s Lakaraa region. It was just one result of the Dominion destroying Lakarian City. Particularly nasty thing; coursing through the bloodstream, slicing open cell membranes, causing dangerously low blood pressure and inability to clot, with later stages of the disease seeing parts of the body disintegrate into a bloody mush that would trigger a gag reflex in even the most stoic of physician. Julian had been studying it for months, but every time he figured out how to stop it, it mutated and found a way past his solutions. He supposed that it was some sort of Dominion-engineered intelligent microorganism. 

He was staring at the ceiling now, tracing the Cardassian ceiling lattice with his eyes when his console chimed, indicating a transmission; he looked down, expecting to see Miles’ transmission code, but he didn’t recognize the code.

After opening the channel, he was greeted by a friendly face. 

“Sarina!” Julian sat up. “How are you?”

“Amazing!” Sarina was smiling as wide as she could. “You?”

“Oh I’m alright. It’s nice to see you again. You’ve cut your hair,” he observed. 

The young woman chuckled and brushed a lock of now chin-length blonde hair behind her ear, “Yeah, people do that,” she teased.

The corner of Julian’s mouth curled up into a smile. “So how’s life at the research center? I trust you’ve been taken care of.”

“Yes! It’s wonderful. Dr. Wilson has been so kind to me, and so has his family. We just adopted a new puppy last month; he’s so cute! Here, just a second...” she disappeared from the screen for a minute, leaving Julian to stare at her unmade bed, which had piles of clothes and PADDs on it, and the collage of pictures. Suddenly, she jumped back into frame, holding up a tiny chocolate lab that wagged its tail and barked excitedly at Julian. “His name’s Buddy!”

“He’s adorable!”

Sarina put the puppy down on her lap and pet him gently. “So anyway, the reason I contacted you is because I have some news.”

“Oh?” Julian cocked an eyebrow. 

“Good news! Well, more like _amazing_ news. But I wanted to tell you in person. I’ll be coming to DS9 in a few days; I was thinking we could have dinner?”

“Of course!” Julian perked up, as excited as the dog playing in Sarina’s lap.

“Awesome! I have to go now. See you,” the transmission ended.

Julian sat back and beamed. He hadn’t seen Sarina in nearly three years; at the beginning of her internship, she’d sent him progress reports and updates, but they became fewer and fewer until they ceased completely. From time to time, he regretted not telling her how he felt; how many nights he would lay awake at night, calculating the chances that she would change her mind and come back; the best he’d ever figured was 28%, but that was if the Borg decided to attack Bajor, and the chances of _that_ happening were barely even one percent. The truth was he loved her. Apart from being able to understand being genetically enhanced, she was kind and brave and funny and so appreciative of things that he usually took for granted; like the way all the different smells of the promenade danced in the air a certain way, and the lightness of the human body when high on adrenaline. 

And she was coming back to him!

He jumped up and ran across the promenade to Quark’s, where Ezri and Nerys were on a date. “Guys! Guess what!”

“What?” Ezri asked. 

“Sarina’s coming!”

“Really? That’s great! She’s a sweet girl. How’s she doing?” Nerys leaned towards him. 

“She said she’s doing wonderfully; she seems _really_ happy with Dr. Wilson.”

“Good!” Ezri said. 

 

~~~~~~~~

 

Julian spent the next few days getting ready; he cleaned up his quarters, finished all his work for the next week, and made sure Sarina had guest quarters waiting for her with a bottle of champagne. 

Maybe he was being a bit presumptuous, but he had to take a shot. Besides, she seemed to really like him the last time they were together. 

When her transport arrived at the station, Julian stood at the docking port, on his tiptoes searching the sea of people. The crowd had pushed him against the wall with all its intensity, and it was difficult to see anything except the tops of people’s heads, which was frustrating because Sarina had a relatively common hair color and head shape. 

Finally, he spotted her standing on the elevated platform of the airlock, searching the crowd herself, one hand gripping the strap of a navy blue duffel bag and the other intwined with the hand of a male Starfleet officer- commander, judging by his uniform. Her eyes met Julian’s and she waved, descending into the crowd.

It took Sarina and the commander a moment to get to Julian; when they did, the three of them pulled each other away from the crowd. 

“Hi!” Julian hugged her. 

“So you’re the famous Dr. Bashir,” the commander held out his hand, “Commander James Fannon of the Serendipity. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Julian shook his hand and looked at Sarina, confused. 

Sarina was beaming. “Julian, this is my fiancé.”

Julian’s face dropped.


End file.
